Ed Rampell is a Los Angeles-based film historian and critic who contributes regularly to The Progressive; he created the Progie Awards in 2007 to highlight the year’s best progressive films and filmmakers. Rampell is the author of the 2005 book Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States and the coauthor of three other film history books, most recently The Hawaii Movie and Television Book.
Passion River Films
Disguised as a sports documentary, the film takes a critical look at the complex world of migrant laborers chasing a dream. Plus, an exclusive clip. more
“Basically it’s a confidence game.” more
Michael Lamont
George Takei talks about his latest work, lessons from history, and combatting racism and sexism today. more
HBO
Tim Robbins discusses real world issues within the context of modern film and stage productions. more
Shutterstock
“I wanted young blacks to see their own history on the big screen. Today, it’s still a big problem, telling black stories in cinema.” more
Netflix
A new Netflix documentary about the famed activist lawyer is released just as the #MeToo wave ‘becomes a tsunami’ more
YouTube
The film, chronicling the Pentagon Papers, is extremely of the moment as another tyrannical president seeks to undermine the free press as he and his administration are under investigation. more
Netflix
Tackling a mysterious Cold War-era death and CIA wrongdoing in groundbreaking style, 'Wormwood' is arguably among the greatest films of all time. more
Wikipedia
From October of 1947 to roughly 1960, more than 300 artists were banned from working in the movies by HUAC unless they recanted their lefty politics. Seventy years later, this event is reenacted. more
Hall’s harrowing, hard-hitting drama could be titled “The Worst Years of Their Lives.” more
YouTube
Tinseltown’s formula for dramatizing actual political controversies is to combine an entertaining, plot-driven storyline with history, compelling characters, and star power. more
Kino Lorber
Despite its gloomy subject matter, the film offers some hope. more
In Shot, Kagan shows us how a random shooting in Los Angeles affects the victim, and the shooter, too. more
image provided
An ideal film to open over Labor Day weekend, Dolores is a stand-up-and-cheer biopic about one of the American left’s iconic heroes, Dolores Huerta. more
Youtube
“Zero Dark Thirty” was a despicable piece of pro-CIA propaganda, but with “Detroit” the filmmaker has redeemed herself. more
“Comedians can say things journalists can’t...They cut right to the chase, tell you what’s going on—and make you laugh about it.” more
In concentrating their attention on Gore, the filmmakers have created a fawning depiction of a flawed politician. more
With stunning cinematography, bizarre sensuality, and heaps of humor, Jodorowsky recounts in creative, entertaining ways his adolescence growing up Jewish in Chile (his parents had emigrated from Russia) more
Courtesy The Actors Gang
Robbins and Moyers talk about their mutual distress over the current Attorney General’s opposition to bipartisan prison reform. more
"I hear this “Pow!” and look over and people are fleeing and I see Erin limping away, clearly in pain. I thought, Oh, my God! Why did they shoot Erin?" more
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